Apologetics Test 1-Dr. Cook- BJU
Descartes' Ontological Argument - ✔️✔️1. I have a distinct mental impression of God-
an infinite all perfect being
2. This impression does not derive from sensory input
3. My impression must have a sufficient cause
4. God alone is a sufficient cause for my impression
5. God exists
Observations on worldviews - ✔️✔️1. Everyone has one
2. Humans instinctively know life's ultimate questions (not necessarily answers)
3. Inadequate worldviews repress ultimate questions
4. Encountering other worldviews clarifies your own
Apologetics - ✔️✔️Answer or defense not "excuse" a reasoned presentation of the
essential propositions of the Christian fair designed to answer objections persuade
unbelievers and reassure believers
Is apologetics biblically justified? - ✔️✔️Yes 1 Peter 3:15 be ready always to give an
answer: contexts emphasizes Christian apologists LIFESTYLE not combative intellect,
every man is an opportunity not just celebrity atheists
presupposition - ✔️✔️An assumption about how the world works that a person believes
to be true, shapes how we interpret evidence, held prior to investigation that conditions
how we interpret a subject from the outset
Observations concerning evidence in apologetics - ✔️✔️1. Bible nowhere forbids use
of evidence
2. Bible argues that no one is neutral about evidence for the truth
3. Effective apologists work THROUGH the evidence to expose people's
presuppositions (their points of view, their worldviews)
A posteriori - ✔️✔️Knowledge gained from or after experience, gained through sensory
impression
A priori - ✔️✔️A self-evident truth that doesn't need to be proved, independent of
sensory impression
What is atheism? - ✔️✔️An emotion
Meta narrative - ✔️✔️A story used to explain another story or stories, an all
encompassing philosophy of history including the story of mans origin and his destiny
Three themes in biblical meta narrative - ✔️✔️Creation, Fall, redemption
, Worldview - ✔️✔️A narrative that answers lifes ultimate questions
Four central ideas - ✔️✔️1. A worldview is a narrative that answers life's ultimate
questions
2. Identical evidence leads to opposite conclusions depending on ones presuppositions
(or narrative)
3. Unbelievers deliberately produce alternative (but incoherent) narratives by excluding
God
4. The Christian narrative has comprehensive explanatory power
Epistemology - ✔️✔️study of knowledge, branch of philosophy that inquired into the
nature of knowledge its origin foundation and validity
Rationalism - ✔️✔️Knowledge acquisition which relies on intuition, deduction and the
laws for logic, a priori or innate knowledge
Empiricism - ✔️✔️Form of knowledge acquisition that relies on experience induction
and scientific experiment, a posteriori knowledge
T/F Christianity is ethically narrow but epistemologically broad - ✔️✔️True: Christianity
embraces all four epistemic sources (revelation, reason, empiricism, tradition) does
NOT embrace them all equally
T/F opponents of the Christian faith operate with a narrow epistemology and
consequently have limited explanatory power - ✔️✔️True
Ontology - ✔️✔️the branch of philosophy that inquired into the nature of real and
unreal, inquiry into status of reality of such things as God, Dreams, spirits souls bodies
mind and ethical persuasions
T/F ontological arguments require a posteriori (empirical data) - ✔️✔️False! No
empirical data needed, they utilize a priori logical deductions
Anselm's Ontological Argument - ✔️✔️1. God is the greatest conceivable being
2. The GCB necessarily includes the attribute of existence
3. God exists
Should we employ ontological argument? - ✔️✔️Confusing
Does demonstrate that atheists are dismissive of the wrong God
Descartes' Ontological Argument - ✔️✔️1. I have a distinct mental impression of God-
an infinite all perfect being
2. This impression does not derive from sensory input
3. My impression must have a sufficient cause
4. God alone is a sufficient cause for my impression
5. God exists
Observations on worldviews - ✔️✔️1. Everyone has one
2. Humans instinctively know life's ultimate questions (not necessarily answers)
3. Inadequate worldviews repress ultimate questions
4. Encountering other worldviews clarifies your own
Apologetics - ✔️✔️Answer or defense not "excuse" a reasoned presentation of the
essential propositions of the Christian fair designed to answer objections persuade
unbelievers and reassure believers
Is apologetics biblically justified? - ✔️✔️Yes 1 Peter 3:15 be ready always to give an
answer: contexts emphasizes Christian apologists LIFESTYLE not combative intellect,
every man is an opportunity not just celebrity atheists
presupposition - ✔️✔️An assumption about how the world works that a person believes
to be true, shapes how we interpret evidence, held prior to investigation that conditions
how we interpret a subject from the outset
Observations concerning evidence in apologetics - ✔️✔️1. Bible nowhere forbids use
of evidence
2. Bible argues that no one is neutral about evidence for the truth
3. Effective apologists work THROUGH the evidence to expose people's
presuppositions (their points of view, their worldviews)
A posteriori - ✔️✔️Knowledge gained from or after experience, gained through sensory
impression
A priori - ✔️✔️A self-evident truth that doesn't need to be proved, independent of
sensory impression
What is atheism? - ✔️✔️An emotion
Meta narrative - ✔️✔️A story used to explain another story or stories, an all
encompassing philosophy of history including the story of mans origin and his destiny
Three themes in biblical meta narrative - ✔️✔️Creation, Fall, redemption
, Worldview - ✔️✔️A narrative that answers lifes ultimate questions
Four central ideas - ✔️✔️1. A worldview is a narrative that answers life's ultimate
questions
2. Identical evidence leads to opposite conclusions depending on ones presuppositions
(or narrative)
3. Unbelievers deliberately produce alternative (but incoherent) narratives by excluding
God
4. The Christian narrative has comprehensive explanatory power
Epistemology - ✔️✔️study of knowledge, branch of philosophy that inquired into the
nature of knowledge its origin foundation and validity
Rationalism - ✔️✔️Knowledge acquisition which relies on intuition, deduction and the
laws for logic, a priori or innate knowledge
Empiricism - ✔️✔️Form of knowledge acquisition that relies on experience induction
and scientific experiment, a posteriori knowledge
T/F Christianity is ethically narrow but epistemologically broad - ✔️✔️True: Christianity
embraces all four epistemic sources (revelation, reason, empiricism, tradition) does
NOT embrace them all equally
T/F opponents of the Christian faith operate with a narrow epistemology and
consequently have limited explanatory power - ✔️✔️True
Ontology - ✔️✔️the branch of philosophy that inquired into the nature of real and
unreal, inquiry into status of reality of such things as God, Dreams, spirits souls bodies
mind and ethical persuasions
T/F ontological arguments require a posteriori (empirical data) - ✔️✔️False! No
empirical data needed, they utilize a priori logical deductions
Anselm's Ontological Argument - ✔️✔️1. God is the greatest conceivable being
2. The GCB necessarily includes the attribute of existence
3. God exists
Should we employ ontological argument? - ✔️✔️Confusing
Does demonstrate that atheists are dismissive of the wrong God
